Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

30 Art

30.457

“On the day when the word ‘art’ was used for the first time and its real idea and exact meaning were established among the other reporters, there stepped forward a Chaldean learned being, very well known in those times, named Aksharpanziar, who was then also a member of the club for Legominists.

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“As the report of that already very aged Chaldean learned being, the great Aksharpanziar, was then the origin for all the further events connected with this same contemporary art there, I will try to recall his speech and repeat it to you as nearly as possible word for word.

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“He then said as follows:

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“‘The past and especially the last two centuries have shown us that during those inevitable psychoses of the masses, from which wars between states and various popular revolts within states always arise, many of the innocent victims of the popular bestiality are invariably those who, owing to their piety and conscious sacrifices, are worthy to be initiates and through whom various Legominisms containing information about all kinds of real events which have taken place in the past are transmitted to the conscious beings of succeeding generations.

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“‘Just such pious men as these always become such innocent victims of the popular bestiality only because, in my opinion, being already free within and never wholly identifying themselves as all the rest do, with all the ordinary interests of those around them, they cannot, for that reason, participate either in the attractions, pleasures, and sentiments, or in the similarly clearly sincere manifestations of those around them.

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“‘And in spite of the fact that in ordinary times they exist normally and in their relations with those around them are always well-wishing in both their inner and outer manifestations and thus acquire in normal periods of everyday life the respect and esteem of those around them, yet when the mass of ordinary people fall into the said psychosis and split into their usual two opposing camps, then these latter, in their state of bestialized reason during their fighting, begin to entertain morbid suspicions of just those who in normal times have always been unassuming and serious; and then, if it should happen that the attention of those under this psychosis should rest a little longer on these exceptional men, they no longer have any doubt whatever that these serious and outwardly always quiet men have undoubtedly also in normal times been nothing more nor less than the “spies” of their present enemies and foes.

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“‘With their diseased Reasons these bestialized men categorically conclude that the previous seriousness and quietness of such men were nothing else but simply what are called “secrecy” and “duplicity.”

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“‘And the result of the psychopathic conclusions of these bestialized men of one or the other hostile party is that without any remorse of conscience whatever they put these serious and quiet men to death.

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“‘In my opinion what I have just said has most frequently been the cause why the Legominisms about events which really took place on the Earth have, in the course of their passage from generation to generation, also totally disappeared from the face of the Earth.

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“‘Well then, my highly esteemed colleagues, if you wish to know my personal opinion, then I shall sincerely tell you with all my being that in spite of all I have told you about the transmission of true knowledge to distant generations through corresponding initiates by means of Legominisms, there is now nothing whatever to be done through these means.

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“‘Let this means be continued as before, as it has been on the Earth from the dawn of centuries and as this form of transmission by initiates through their “ableness-to-be” was renewed by the great prophet Ashiata Shiemash.

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“‘If we contemporary men desire at the present time to do something beneficent for men of future times, all we must do is just to add to this already existing means of transmission some new means or other, ensuing from the ways of our contemporary life on the Earth as well as from the many-centuried experience of former generations, in accordance with the information that has come down to us.

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“‘I personally suggest that this transmission to future generations be made through the human what are called “Afalkalna,” that is through various productions of man’s hands which have entered into use in the daily life of the people, and also through the human “Soldjinoha,” that is through various procedures and ceremonies which have already been established for centuries in the social and family life of people and which automatically pass from generation to generation.

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“‘Either these human Afalkalna themselves, and in particular those which are made of lasting materials, will survive and for various reasons will be handed down to men of distant generations, or copies of them will pass from generation to generation, thanks to the property which is rooted in the essence of man of giving out as one’s own, after having changed some minor detail, one or another of the productions of man which have reached them from long past epochs.

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“‘In regard to the human Soldjinoha, as for instance various “mysteries,” “religious ceremonies,” “family-and-social-customs,” “religious-and-popular-dances,” and so on, then although they often change in their external form with the flow of time, yet the impulses engendered in man through them and the manifestations of man derived from them always remain the same; and thus by placing the various useful information and true knowledge we have already attained within the inner factors which engender these impulses and these useful manifestations, we can fully count on their reaching our very remote descendants, some of whom will decipher them and thereby enable all the rest to utilize them for their good.

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“‘The question now is only this, by what means can such a transmission through the various human Afalkalna and Soldjinoha as I have described be actualized?

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“‘I personally suggest that this be done through the Universal Law called the “Law of Sevenfoldness.”

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“‘The Law of Sevenfoldness exists on the Earth and will exist forever and in everything.

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“‘For instance, in accordance with this Law, there are in the white ray seven independent colors; in every definite sound there are seven different independent tones; in every state of man, seven different independent sensations; further, every definite form can be made up of only seven different dimensions; every weight remains at rest on the Earth only thanks to seven “reciprocal thrusts,” and so on.

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“‘Well then, of the knowledge now existing which we have personally attained or which has reached us from times past, just that knowledge which we shall agree is useful for our remote descendants must be indicated in some way or other in the said human Afalkalna and Soldjinoha, so that in the future it may be perceived by the pure Reason of man by means of this great Universal Law.

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“‘I repeat that the Law of Sevenfoldness will exist on the Earth as long as the Universe exists, and it will be seen and understood by men in all times as long as human thought exists on the Earth, and it can therefore boldly be said that the knowledge indicated in this manner in the mentioned productions will exist also forever on the Earth.

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“‘And as regards the method itself, that is to say, the mode of transmission through this Law, in my opinion, it can be actualized in the following way:

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“‘In all the productions which we shall intentionally create on the basis of this Law for the purpose of transmitting to remote generations, we shall intentionally introduce certain also lawful inexactitudes, and in these lawful inexactitudes we shall place, by means available to us, the contents of some true knowledge or other which is already in the possession of men of the present time.

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“‘In any case, for the interpretation itself, or, as may be said, for the “key” to those inexactitudes in that great Law, we shall further make in our productions something like a Legominism, and we shall secure its transmission from generation to generation through initiates of a special kind, whom we shall call initiates of art.

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“‘And we shall call them so because the whole process of such a transmission of knowledge to remote generations through the Law of Sevenfoldness will not be natural but artificial.

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“‘And so, my highly accomplished and impartial colleagues….

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“‘It must now be clear to you that if for some reason or another the information useful for our descendants concerning knowledge already attained by men about past events on the Earth fails to reach them through genuine initiates, then, thanks to these new means of transmission which I have suggested, men of future generations will always be able to reflect upon and make clear to themselves, if not everything now already existing, then at least those particular fragments of the common knowledge already existing on the Earth, which chance to reach them through these said productions of the hands of contemporary man as well as through those various existing ceremonies in which, by means of this great Law of Sevenfoldness and with the help of these artificial indications of ours, we shall now put what we wish.’

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“With these words the great Aksharpanziar then concluded his report.

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“Considerable excitement and noisy discussion followed his speech among all the members of the club of the Adherents of Legominism, and the outcome of it was that they then and there unanimously decided to do as the great Aksharpanziar had suggested.

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“Well, the unanimous decision was then carried, to begin the following day making what are called ‘minia-images’—or, as the contemporary three-brained beings call them, ‘models’—of various productions; to try to work out the possible and most suitable means of indication, on the principles laid down by the great Aksharpanziar; and thereafter to bring these minia-images or models of theirs to the club for exhibition and exposition to the other members.

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“I am speaking about what is called the ‘common-integral vibration of all sources of actualizing,’ namely, about that which the learned being Aksharpanziar, of whom I spoke, called the ‘white ray’ and about the perceptions of impressions from separate ‘blendings of gravity center vibrations’ which are distinguished by beings as separate what are called ‘tonalities-of-color.’